Articles by Emily Harstone

Emily Harstone is the pen name of a published writer. Her work has been published in ten countries, four continents, by over fifty different journals. She is a professional submissions adviser and editor. If she owned a dog it would be named Wystan.

Announcing the Second Recipient of the Authors Publish Fund for Literary Journals

Earlier this month we made an announcement of a new fund for literary journals. You can learn all about this fund here. We selected the recipient of the fund using a random number generator. We are happy to announce that Arsenika is the second receipt of our fund and will receive 150 (US) dollars. Arsenika…

18 Major Book Publishers Always Open to Submissions

Some publishers open and close their doors to submissions on a routine basis. It can be hard to determine if they are open or shut to submissions, and when you should submit. The following 18 publishers, however, are always open to submissions from writers without agents or previous publishing experience. They are all respected publishers…

Eerdmans Books for Young Readers: Now Accepting Manuscript Queries

Updated March 2025 Founded in 1911 and located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company is an independent publisher of religious books. They have a large range, including academic books and reference works in theology, biblical studies, and religious history to popular titles in spirituality, social and cultural criticism, as well as literature….

The Problem with Mass Submissions

I’ve touched on this issue before in all my books on submitting, both in terms of literary journals and manuscript publishers, but I’ve never focused an entire article on it before. Mass submitting is a term used to describe when an author, or a company working on an author’s behalf, submits their work to a…

27 Publishers with Excellent Distribution That Accept Unsolicited Submissions

All of the publishers on this list sell many copies of physical books. All of them have books that are available not just at stores near you, but at libraries as well, because they have good distributors. If you want your novel or book to have a good chance of being placed on bookshelves and…

404 Ink: Now Accepting Manuscript Queries

From now through the 31st of October, 404 Ink, an Edinburgh based publisher, is open to direct submissions of full length manuscripts of fiction, nonfiction, short stories, and poetry. They are a small press that has different reading periods every year, so if you are reading this after 2020, please check their website for the…

Moxy: Now Seeking Submissions

Moxy is a UK based literary journal founded in 2018, with a focus on creative nonfiction. They have a beautiful and easy to navigate website. They publish criticism, essays, travel writing, and personal essays as well as art and cartoons. They were inspired in part by the autofiction movement, although much of what they publish…

13 Literary Journals that Focus on Nature and the Environment

Most literary journals, unless they have a very focused mission, or are genre journals, are open to publishing poems, prose, and nonfiction featuring nature. Most writers that focus on the natural world do not have an issue finding homes for their work in general interest literary journals. Still, there are a number of journals that…

Vinspire Publishing: Open Call for Manuscript Queries

Updated February 27th, 2025: Appears to be defunct. No longer has a functioning websiteVinspire Publishing was founded in 2004. They were originally called Vintage Romance Publishing, because they started only published historical romance. When they expanded their line in 2010 to include a wide range of genres including books for children, they renamed themselves. Although…

Sunbury Press: Now Accepting Manuscript Queries

January 28TH UPDATE: They are now charging 2.95 cents for submissions, to cover their submittable fee. They no longer fall in line with Authors Publish Guiding principles, even though the fee is small and understandable in this situation. This review is left up for posterity’s sake. Sunbury Press is a small publisher of hardcover, trade…

Warning Signs: How to Avoid Submitting Your Work to the Wrong Publisher

This article is all about how to avoid signing a book contract with the wrong publisher. It is hard to find good publishers, and it involves a lot of research just to find a legitimate publisher that accepts work if you do not have an agent. However, there are great options out there, particularly for…

Coffeetown Press: Now Accepting Manuscript Queries

Coffeetown Press is a literary and non-fiction imprint owned by Epicenter Press. They primarily publish non-fiction, as well as memoir, literary fiction, and historical fiction. Coffeetown Press has distribution through Ingram, which isn’t ideal, but they also have relationships with a number of wholesalers, which is great. They’ve been around for over twenty years and…

How to Make Time to Write: COVID-19 Edition

“All writers have this vague hope that the elves will come in the night and finish any stories.” ― Neil Gaiman Time for writing doesn’t make itself. This might seem like a ridiculously obvious statement, yet it is a trap writers fall into all the time, myself included. If you have a good writing habit…

VERVE BOOKS: Now Accepting Manuscript Submissions

VERVE BOOKS is the new digital-first imprint of No Exit Press. No Exit Press is one of the top UK-based mystery publishers, and they are not open to direct submissions, but VERVE BOOKS is. They will focus on publishing crime, thriller and commercial fiction genres, with the focus being on character driven stories. Digital-first means…

Hoxie Gorge Review: Now Accepting Submissions

The Hoxie Gorge Review publishes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction by both emerging and established contemporary writers. They say their only requirement is quality. Their website is well-laid-out and easy to interact with. It’s easy to get a feel for what they publish by reading their current issue. They close to submissions on September 30th and…

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